Up and awake at a normal time here in Duluth. We pack up our belongings in anticipation of our drive north to Grand Marais and our final destination for this trip. We stop at the lobby of South Pier Inn for a quick breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, toasted bagel w/ cream cheese and some good old cake donuts for dunking in our coffee, we mounted our sturdy blue steed and hit the highway.
We traveled state highway 61, the scenic north shore drive that stays right on the coast of Lake Superior the entire way. We pulled over for many scenic overlooks, and stopped for numerous bathroom breaks - our typical morning requirements. The lake is huge - ocean like to us flatlanders, and the National Forests we drive past and through feature stunning white pine and birch trees. We make a stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park and take the short hike, together with half of northern Minnesota's vacationing population, to see the falls. This is an impressive falls, tumbling down to the lake. We toured the gift shop, restraining our purchases to a hiking staff medallion for our collection and a pair of intriguing bird cage earrings - one for Deb and one for Mark (as soon as he can get his ear pierced.)
Back on the road again, we eventually pull in to Grand Marais around 1:15. We park along the highway and survey our choices for lunch, settling on the Grill Harbor Cafe for their patio overlooking the highway and the lake. An excellent choice. We enjoy a glass of Pinot Noir, a fresh caught flounder fish and chips accompanied by a kale cole slaw salad and potato wedges and a "Sammie" sandwich - a lightly breaded and pan fried piece of walleye on a tender ciabatta roll. Potato wedges also accompanied the sandwich and a large helping of the excellent dill tartar sauce topped it all off.
If the narrative of this trip to the north seems overly food centric, it is probably because there are only so many ways to describe pine trees and birch wood.
We turned off the highway to hit the Gunflint Trail, a 50 mile road leading into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) administered by the National Forest Service. This county highway is dotted with lodges and resorts, some founded as far back as 1885. Our goal, Gunflint Lake Lodge, was founded in 1927 and consists of duplex and single cabins arrayed along the large Gunflint Lake. As we gain our cabin (#23), our home for the next 3 nights, we find a very modern cabin with shower, kitchen, king size bed, and fireplace stocked with firewood.
In front of the cabin, some 50 feet through the woods, sits a platform overlooking the lake with two Adirondack chairs and a view across the lake to Canada. Although thoroughly modern, there is no cell phone service, and wifi connection only in the main lodge. This will be a truly disconnected vacation and will require some getting used to. This daily posting will be written at the cabin, and then, up to the lodge to add pictures and get it out to those of you lucky enough to be on the mailing list (which by the way, is a fluid list that I try to remember each day as I send it out.) If you miss a day, email me and I will get the missing day to you, or if you want to be removed from the list, let me know and I will comply (just like all those other mailing lists that promise to remove the recipient!)
We spent our first afternoon wandering around to get the lay of the land. We then repaired to our lake perch, poured some wine and watched the sun set and the loons call as the stars come out. The lack of ambient light makes for some wondrous starlit nights. As we had a good lunch, we opted to stay in our cabin, polishing off the last of our Brie and crackers, another glass of wine and then to bed with our books.
Greatest quote of the day was a gentleman in the lobby of the lodge asking how to turn on his AC. The answer - there is no AC, sir, only ceiling fans in each of the cabin rooms.
